many profess really were as strong and as deep-seated as it ought to be, all the nations of Christendom would rise en masse-would declare that such miseries, such demoralization, such wickedness, shall not be inflicted on the world-would, in short, form themselves into a new social union, pledged to promote peace and good will over the earth. Perhaps before these pages issue from the press, we ourselves, the people of England, may be among the guilty in this matter. This would not change our view; it would not discharge our consciences from the duty of saying what we think. May the prayers of many good men and women avert the evil, at which we can hardly bear to hint! And now what of the opening year of 1871? What pleasanter than our glad recognition of many and many a kindly deed done by the sons and daughters of England for the suffering people of the desolated countries of Europe? It is a cheering, a comforting recollection, that the Samaritan spirit has abounded, and that there is scarcely a village or a lonely hovel in our land which has not contributed out of its poverty to the funds for the sick and wounded, or to the destitute people, whose fields are untilled, and whose flocks and herds have been driven away from their owners. Perhaps the time, always present indeed, is come, in which we may offer an earnest hope that there will be no slackening of good resolutions, well followed out, directed against our own particular forms of social evil; that our money, our time, our thoughts, may be directed less towards pleasures and luxuries, and more, far more, towards the religious and moral improvement of those among whom our lot is cast; that we may dispense any means in our power, with less regard to fashion, and more to true charity: that we may live more as members one of another. The life of our widely scattered villages is, indeed, generally favourable to the cultivation of these genial neighbourly offices; but one shudders to think of the vast aggregate of human existence in large towns-in London especially-where brotherhood is no more than a vague name, and the face of one man hardly recognizes that of another; yet, even here, what a remedy against despair it is to see every day, as if we do but examine our daily papers we may, that the links between the high and the low are multiplied and strengthened continually. Go where we may, we generally learn that a chain of communication has been established, that sympathy is given, and many a far-reaching charity, both to body and soul, is wisely, not lavishly, bestowed. One's heart leaps forth to meet those who purely and simply live to do good. The blessing of the Father of mercies and of His beloved Son be with them on their way! Keeping, as we have done in these few lines, to generals, we yet are so impressed by the strong claims of one species of charity, that we cannot dismiss our paper without touching upon it. While we send money, food, and nurses, to the sick abroad, we cannot help adverting to the case of our Hospitals and Dispensaries at home, and entreating our friends and readers to do what they can to enlarge their means of assisting the poor who suffer from disease or accidents. Every year we see, with concern, that these noble institutions have a struggling life, and are often obliged to diminish their aid where it is much needed. Let us also urge upon those who can look into the internal affairs of these institutions, to do so thoroughly and fairly; and further, if anything can be done, by influence and example, to keep the benefits as near to the class for whose use they were intended as possible, let no pains be spared to accomplish that object. It may be difficult, but not impossible, to shame those who can afford to pay for medicine and aid, from taking what was provided for a lower class. We dare say no more-it is a question of social honesty, and must be conscientiously dealt with. We have said nothing of Education. New plans are on their trial, and must have a candid reception. That there should be increasing sound knowledge everywhere, we earnestly desire; yet we cannot but see how unavailing is knowledge, unless the spirit is raised to desire the best, holiest, most purifying influences. If our teachers are imbued with this desire, they must, they will do their work well. No earthly power can hinder them. The machinery they employ may be various; but he who lives a Christian life can alone form Christian disciples. Thus, then, we meet and part on these opening days of 1871. Long before its close, may Peace, founded on principle, prevail over the spirit of war; and may they who are permitted to behold it, rejoice in the blessing, and be thankful. NEW YEAR'S DAY. BY THE REV. M. G. WATKINS, M. A. ANOTHER year has faded to the past, With all its wealth of summer suns and flowers With all its precious trust of circling hours From man's brief portion. This may shine the last, For you-for me-this year that flees so fast While yet we dream! No more weep wasted pow'rs; T. SONGS OF OTHER CHURCHES. BY LOUIS COUTIER BIGGS, M. A. I. THE EARLY SYRIAN CHURCH. On the completion of the articles on English Hymnology, which I had the pleasure of contributing in 1867 and 1868 to the pages of this Magazine, it was suggested by several friends that additional interest would be awakened in the subject of Hymnology, if those papers could be supplemented by a slight sketch of its main features in other Churches besides our own. Causes which need not here be enumerated, prevented me from attempting this at the time, but I venture to hope that something of the kind will not be less acceptable now. The task is one of some difficulty, because the subject must necessarily be illustrated by translations, especially in those parts where no ready-made English versions exist. Though I have obtained promises of help in providing such renderings, I must remind the reader that they who execute these promises are, to some extent, working in chains. The object being to shew the hymns of other lands just as they are, it would not be attained by free poetical renderings. Almost all the translations will be as literal as possible, and in some cases they will only be given as proofs that the sacred poetry of some particular writer or age differs widely from our English ideal of a hymn. I must also remind some who may expect me to dwell most fully upon comparatively well-known periods of Hymnology, that the very fact of their being well known makes this less necessary. Taking first the Syrian Church, then the two marked styles of sacred poetry which successively arose in Greece, we shall pass on to find four scarcely less distinct epochs in the history of Latin Hymnology. Here, although numerous illustrations and examples will be less needed, we shall endeavour by such examples as are given, to enable an intelligent student of hymns to recognize those characteristics of its age which are most usually retained by a Latin hymn in its English dress. We shall endeavour to find matter of interest in the hymns which the Ethiopic service-books contain, and which, in spite of the labours of Mr. Rodwell as their translator and Mr. Chatterton Dix as their versifier, are still too little known in England. We shall see that the Scandinavian peninsula possesses a richer literature in respect of sacred poetry than might be looked for; and in other European nations there will appear traces of a Hymnology, growing with the growth of national religion and earnestness on the one hand, and with the development of general literature on the other. And we may perhaps, in conclusion, be allowed just to touch upon the distinctive features which present themselves in American hymns; for indeed some of these last, although written in our own language, are in thought and feeling even less allied to our English hymns than some written originally in another tongue. It is not, perhaps, unnatural that a special, interest should attach itself to the Church in Syria. It was at Antioch, as we know, that the disciples were first called Christians. This city was also most probably the birthplace of S. Luke. Here S. Paul was ordained an Apostle; hence he started for, and hither he returned from, his missionary journeys; here he defended the liberties of the Gentile Christians, to whom this city afterwards became a metropolis and centre, scarcely in a less degree than Jerusalem was to the Jews. It is necessary to remember this, in order to account for the very early development and the distinctive character of the Syriac Church literature. The New Testament was very early translated into the Syriac language, and this version doubtless became the model on which the ecclesiastical dialect was formed, and from which its peculiarities were derived. Meanwhile, the Syro-Phoenician coast was the commercial resort of many nations;-a constant interchange of thought and feeling, and of language too, was going on there, and this was not without its effect on every class of authors in Syria. From the circumstances we have enumerated, the general character to be expected in Syriac hymns might be almost proved beforehand. There are in them, no doubt, abundant traces of their Semitic authorship; but the stateliness of Hebrew poetry has been largely modified by the introduction of lyric elegances from Greece and Rome, and the parallelisms in which Jewish ears delighted have been in great measure sacrificed to a classic regularity of rhythm. Rhyme does not often appear, and indeed even accent and quantity cannot be traced; but Dr. Burgess, in the preface to his translation of S. Ephraem's Hymns and Homilies, states his belief that this is only a result of our ignorance. Paronomasia is more frequent than in Hebrew poetry, and makes it impossible to translate some parts of the best hymns without losing much of their spirit. In Syria,* as in many other Churches in later times, the true and orthodox Christians were not the first to avail themselves of the soulstirring influence of hymns. The Gnostics, Bardesanes and his son Harmonius, were the fathers of Syrian metrical literature; and it was from seeing the people so powerfully led by their music to profane games and wanton dances, that Ephraem was induced to learn their melodies and metres, and to provide instead of these profane songs, spiritual odes on the events of our LORD's Life, on the martyrs and departed saints, and on penitence. Certainly, in regard to the number of his compositions Ephraem was surpassed by few. The Syrians attribute twelve thousand songs to him, the Copts fourteen thousand. The metres may perhaps have been originally derived from the Greek; but it is certain that the music of Syria, by its greater richness and variety, brought them into * For many interesting particulars in this article, I am indebted to Dr. Henry Burgess's two volumes of translations from Ephraem Syrus. new combinations. In many of the hymns there are clear evidences that antiphonal singing was contemplated. There are six principal varieties of metre:-in the shortest, the lines are tetrasyllabic, in strophes or stanzas of four or more lines each. The following retains the metre of its Syriac original by Ephraem. It is from a hymn for a week-day evening. We might predict with tolerable certainty that the hymns of Ephraem would contain some polemical allusions to the heretical tenets against which they were directed. And we find accordingly that Bardesanes especially is mentioned by name, quotations from his verse are made and commented upon, and his denial that the body will rise from the dead is refuted. The hatred in which the memory of Bardesanes was held seems the probable cause why the pentasyllabic metre was afterwards ascribed to Balai, a disciple of Ephraem, rather than to him. It appears that Ephraem himself acknowledged this metre as coming from Bardesanes. The hexasyllabic is rare in Ephraem; its discovery is ascribed to the leper Narses of Nisibis. The heptasyllabic is Ephraem's most ordinary metre, but Asseman cautions us against imagining that he was the discoverer of it. In this metre Ephraem's largest and most striking discourse is written. Its subject is the Repentance of Nineveh, and an excellent prose translation of it has been published by the Rev. Dr. Burgess. For the following specimen of a hymn in this metre, as well as for the two hymns which follow, I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. S. J. Stone, author of Lyra Fidelium. The original is entitled 'A Prayer in the Prospect of Death.' 'LORD, I have confessed Thy Name! Not to Thy left Hand! lest I Be of Satan's company. |